1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamp holding apparatus, a lighting device for a display device including the lamp holding apparatus, a display device including the lighting device, and a liquid crystal display device including a lighting device for a display device.
2. Background of the Invention
Since a liquid crystal panel used in a liquid crystal display device of, for example, a liquid crystal television or the like is not self-luminous, it requires a separate backlight device as an external lamp. The backlight device is installed at a back side of the liquid crystal panel, and generally includes a base made of a metal with a surface on a liquid crystal panel side opened, a number of cold-cathode tubes accommodated in the base as lamps, and a number of optical members (diffusion sheet and the like) arranged on the opening portion of the base and efficiently releasing light emitted by the cold-cathode tubes to the liquid crystal panel side, and includes lamp clips for holding the cold-cathode tubes, which have a slim elongated tube shape, with respect to the base.
As one example of the lamp clip described above, the lamp clip disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-210126 is known. This lamp clip is made of a synthetic resin, and includes a mounting plate arranged along an inner surface of a base, a locking portion which protrudes to a base side from the mounting plate and is inserted into a mounting hole of the base and is lockable to its peripheral edge, a lamp holding portion which protrudes to an opposite side from the locking portion from the mounting plate and is capable of holding a peripheral surface of a cold-cathode tube so as to surround it, and a pin which protrudes in the same direction as the lamp holding portion from the mounting plate. The pin protrudes to a larger extent than the lamp holding portion, and therefore, when the lamp clip is mounted to the base, an operator performs a mounting operation by gripping the pin.
Incidentally, the production of lamp clips can result in some variation in size that, due to an error in manufacture, cannot be avoided. In consideration of the error, the distance between the opposing surface to the base in the mounting plate and the opposing surface to the base in the locking projection is set to be a little larger than the plate thickness of the base, and therefore, it is possible that the mounted lamp clips rattle with respect to the base due to the clearance.
One option to reduce rattling is to include a locking portion. The locking portion is arranged to protrude at the mounting plate and the locking portion is inserted into a mounting hole formed in the base. The locking portion is designed to supplement an elastic force by further providing a projection facing to the base side to protrude at the mounting plate, and by elastically deforming the projection to compress the projection.
However, the elastic rebound force obtained by compression of the projection is extremely small, and therefore, even if such a projection is formed on the lamp holding apparatus, rattling of the lamp holding apparatus with respect to the base member cannot be sufficiently absorbed and prevented.